MY NEXT SERMON

At present, I do not have any further formal preaching engagements diarised. 

SERMON 232 - SUNDAY 8 MARCH 2026 - THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT

Sermon at St. Mary’s Church Parish Church, West Dean – 3rd Sunday in Lent  –  Sunday 8th March 2026

John 4 : 1-42

The Samaritan Woman at the Well in Sychar.

 

A Meditative Reflection based on John 4:6-10 (Soul Sisters, Edwina Gateley p65)

I waited for all the other women to return from the well – chattering and laughing, carelessly spilling drops of their precious water as they balanced their jugs on sloping shoulders.  They walked together – they always do – clustering around a story, a bit of news, some whispering gossip, about me, perhaps. Yes – most probably about me.

 

Again, at sunset, the day’s heat cooled, and jugs long emptied, they set out, sharing stories and laughing, sometimes weeping and consoling.  For this is woman-time.

 

I must go alone at noon.  When the village eats and rests behind closed doors I open mine, and furtive, like my clients, I slip into the light and heat alone. Balancing my jug, I move swiftly not daring a slow or leisured pace …

 

Close to the well I stop, scarce believing what I see – a man resting there in woman’s sacred space.  I cannot hide, nor return with an empty jug. But I know I will be condemned … by this brief encounter.  I must not speak.  It is not my place.  I have sinned enough.

 

But it is not I who breaks the rules – the man, a Jew, dares to speak to me!  Does he not know the law? Does he not know? Yet, softly, he speaks to me.

 

“Water, give me water”

 

He – a man – a Jew –

 

Asking me for water!  I can scarce hide my shock.  Ah, but no one has ever looked upon me so tenderly!

 

I must tell him, it is not done, that he should speak to me – but he does.

 

He begins to tell me strange things about “Living Water” – but he has no bucket – how can he give water – he offers water of a different kind, welling up within, an eternal spring that would never dry up. 

From my deep place of longing, I cry out aloud – “Ah, give it to me”

 

A short extempore homily (summarised below) followed this passage reminding us that Jesus went out of his way to travel through Samaria (occupied by people who had a mutual hatred of Jews) at a time of the day when he would meet up with this woman, an outcast within her own society – in fact a meeting of two outcasts as far as the religious Samaritans were concerned – a Jew and a woman of dubious morality.

 

The whole of the reading – John 4:1-42 - reminds us that as Christians we are expected to love all our fellow humans even those who are not like ourselves as well as avoiding prejudice and judgement against those who are different, and to ask ourselves - have we treated people unlike ourselves differently and less favourably in our own lives?  Do we still do so?

 

In today’s world, we are seeing increasingly right-wing leaders and politicians exercising the kind of prejudices which Jesus, literally, went out of his way to stop.  An increasingly worrying trend is the rise of “Christian Nationalism” which seeks to use, or rather abuse Christianity as a weapon against those it seeks to persecute, for political gain or maintenance, in the name of restoring Christian principles in our multicultural society.

 

As true Christians, followers of Jesus Christ, we are instructed by him to continue to spread the true gospel of peace and love, not hatred and war.

 

 

Amen                                                                                                               MFB/232/08032026

SERMON 231 - SUNDAY 8 FEBRUARY 2026 - SECOND SUNDAY BEFORE LENT

Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Farley – 2nd Sunday before Lent  –  Sunday 8th February 2026

Matthew 6:25-34

Why Worry?”

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”
— Matthew 6:25, 27

Why Fear?

And as for worry’s cousin “fear”, a former President of the United States once said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” – President Franklin Roosevelt.

I have just returned from a 14 nights’ cruise to the western Mediterranean, by way of the Bay of Biscay, with a colleague who was most fearful about the stability of the ship on the high seas and was constantly worrying about the prospect of sailing through heavy seas and being seasick. In fact, as if he was being tested, we did indeed encounter 9-metre waves in the Atlantic yet he was absolutely fine throughout. His worries and fear were totally unnecessary and probably spoiled some of the excitement of being on his first cruise. 

Worry is one of the most common human experiences. It doesn’t matter who you are, how strong your faith is, or how well your life seems to be going—worry finds us all. We worry about money. We worry about health. We worry about our children, our future, our past, our relationships, our work, and sometimes things we can’t even name. Worry has a way of sneaking in quietly and then settling down as if it belongs.

And into that very human condition, Jesus speaks some of the most challenging—and comforting—words in we will find in the Bible - “Do not worry.”

At first, that can sound unrealistic, even dismissive. “Do not worry?” we think. “Have you seen the world we’re living in?” But Jesus is not offering a shallow slogan or a denial of reality. He is offering a radical reorientation of how we see life, God, and ourselves.

Jesus begins by addressing the basics: food, drink, clothing—the necessities of life. These were not small concerns in the first century. For many people, daily survival was uncertain. Yet Jesus says, “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” In other words, if God has given us life itself, should we really believe He will abandon u when it comes to sustaining that life?

To make His point, Jesus tells us to look around. Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet, he says, your heavenly Father feeds them. Look at the lilies of the field. They do not labour or spin, yet even Solomon in all his splendour was not dressed like one of these.

Jesus is inviting us to notice something we often forget: creation itself is a testimony to God’s care. The birds are not lazy; they still search for food. The flowers still grow according to their nature. But they are not consumed by anxiety about tomorrow. They live within the care of the One who made them.

Then Jesus asks a piercing question: “Are you not much more valuable than they?”

This is where worry often reveals its deeper issue. Worry is not just about circumstances; it is about trust. When we worry excessively, we are not simply acknowledging that life is uncertain—we are quietly assuming that we are alone in that uncertainty.

There’s an old saying sailors use when things go wrong: “Worse things happen at sea”, probably a phrase which was very much in the mind of my travelling companion on that recent cruise voyage. However, it’s a way of putting trouble into perspective. Yes, this is hard. Yes, this is unpleasant. But it is not the end of the world. That phrase carries a kind of grounded wisdom. It reminds us that difficulty is part of life, but difficulty is not the final word.

Jesus says something similar when He reminds us that worrying does not actually help. “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” The answer, of course, is no. If anything, worry shortens life, drains joy, clouds judgment, and steals peace.

It’s often said—and studies back this up—that about 98% of the things we worry about never actually happen. Think about that for a moment. Almost everything that keeps us awake at night, knots our stomachs, and dominates our thoughts never comes to pass; and even when difficult things do happen, they rarely happen in the way we imagined. We therefore end up suffering twice: once in our imagination and once, maybe, in reality.

Worry, then, is a terrible investment. It costs us a great deal and returns nothing.

But Jesus doesn’t just tell us to stop worrying; He tells us why we can stop worrying. “Your heavenly Father knows that you need all of these things.” God is not ignorant of our needs. He is not distant. He is not indifferent. The same God who clothes the grass of the field—which is here today and gone tomorrow—knows your name, your fears, your needs, and your future.

This is where faith comes in—not faith as wishful thinking, but faith as trust in a faithful God. Jesus says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

Notice what He does not say. He does not say, “Ignore your responsibilities.” He does not say, “Pretend problems don’t exist.” He says, “Put first things first.” Make God the centre, not the margins. Let your life be oriented around His kingdom rather than your fears.

When we put our faith in God through Jesus, we are not promised a worry-free life—but we are promised a life that is not ruled by worry. Through Jesus, we come to know God not as a distant power, but as a loving Father. At the cross, we see just how far God is willing to go for us. If God did not spare His own Son, do we really believe He will abandon us in the details of daily life?

Faith does not remove tomorrow’s challenges, but it does remove tomorrow’s weight from today. Jesus ends this passage by saying, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” That is not pessimism; it is realism paired with hope. Jesus acknowledges that each day has trouble—but He also implies that each day has sufficient grace too.

We are called to live one day at a time, trusting God one step at a time. Worry pulls us into a future we cannot control. Faith anchors us in the present, where God’s grace is always available.

So when worry rises—and it will—perhaps we can remember a few simple truths. Worse things happen at sea, and yet people survive storms they never thought they could. Most of what we fear will never happen. And the God who holds the universe together has promised to hold us as well.

Worry says, “What if?”
Faith says, “Even if.”

Even if things don’t go as planned.
Even if the road is harder than expected.
Even if answers don’t come right away.

Even if—God is still God. And we are still His beloved children.

May we hear Jesus’ words not as a rebuke, but as an invitation. An invitation to lay down burdens we were never meant to carry. An invitation to trust the One who knows what we need before we ask. An invitation to live not in fear of tomorrow, but in confidence in God today.

Amen                                                                                                         MFB/231/05022026

SERMON 230 - SUNDAY 11 JANUARY 2026 - BAPTISM OF CHRIST/EPIPHANY 1

Sermon at West Dean, St. Mary’s Parish Church, - Baptism of Christ  –  Sunday 11th January 2026

Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17

Today we celebrate the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist in the River Jordan; but as well as being such a celebration we are still in the Season of Epiphany – that time when we remember the coming of the wise men or “kings” bearing three prophetic gifts to the infant Jesus – gold to represent his kingship, frankincense to represent his holiness or divinity and myrrh, that perfume with which the dead are anointed to represent the great sacrifice he would later make for all.

The two New Testament readings, one from Acts and one from Matthew’s Gospel, remind us that Jesus, the King of Kings, came not just to establish a heavenly kingdom for the Jews but for all humankind. Peter, in his speech to the household of Cornelius, a Roman centurion, a leader of the forces occupying Judea, makes this point that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, came not to remove those occupying forces and re-establish Jewish sovereignty, but as the Son of God, establishing a universal kingdom far more important and enduring.

Christianity as a global phenomenon was being established and a desire for the whole world to realise the importance of following Christ and being united.  This is why the words of Peter, like John in our second reading are so important in understanding this. Peter reminds his listeners, and readers of Acts, that the message of the Gospel, the Good News as it is sometimes described, starts at this point with Jesus’s baptism. It is an outward illustration of God’s power and Jesus’s mission.

Like John the Baptist, I found it difficult, at first, to understand why John should have to baptise Jesus.  In an earlier piece of scripture John had remarked that “one would follow me whose sandals I am not fit to carry” (Matt 3 v11). John was the forward messenger and although people had been baptised as an act of showing repentance, or metanoia, a turning back to God and cleansing themselves of their past sinful life. We do this today in our churches and sometimes in rivers.  Jesus, as the divine Son of God surely had no reason to undertake this ritual and symbolic cleansing – after all he is God.

However, with Jesus would come the Holy Spirit to all who wanted it – “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and Fire”, had said John earlier – in other words not only will you be changed through the cleansing of your body as a symbol of washing away the old tainted ways, but you will also have something brand new bestowed upon you. 

John therefore challenges Jesus as to why he should be baptised and at the end of this passage we learn the reason in one of the most emotional pieces of scripture –

“They saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him; and a voice from heaven said “This is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased”.

This passage of scripture, this description of Jesus’s baptism is an affirmation of the divinity of Jesus, yet born as a human and living amongst humans here on Earth. It is also a positive sign to John that his ministry, as the one who comes before, was a true one and that he has now himself observed the long-awaited Messiah. It is also a reminder to us of God’s great love for us in sending his Son to live, minister and die for us.  That is the same reminder and story which Peter is giving out in his speech in our Second Reading.

None of this, actually, should come as a surprise to anyone, then and now, as it was foretold in the Old Testament. In our first reading from Isaiah we read:

“Thus says the Lord, Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights, I have put the Spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

I get really excited when I read these passages – Isaiah foretelling the coming of Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah; the actual biographical narrative in Matthew’s Gospel and, finally, a reminder and a summary of what went on and why in Luke’s account of Peter’s speech to the Gentiles.

When I practised law, I used to get the same delightful feeling when a case hung together nicely and tightly with no room for ambiguity. We called it the “stick of rock” theory – simply described, the first lick at the beginning should have “Cleethorpes” in it as should the last bit. If somewhere between the two you suddenly come across “Brighton” or “Skegness” for example you do not have something of integrity.

Another lovely piece of connectivity is the description of a dove (the symbol of peace) as the Holy Spirit descending on him. You will recall that after the devastation of the Great Flood, it was a dove which came back to Noah’s Ark with an olive branch in its beak to indicate that the cleansing of the world, by the Great Flood, was now over and a new world can begin; it is also the dove which for generations has been the symbol for peace and the messenger of peace throughout the world; a symbol of new beginnings and of understanding between all peoples.  At this time of such turmoil and uncertainty and, can I dare say it, the prospect of some global conflict at our doorstep, we need to be messengers of peace and love, we need to carry the light of Christ before us and into this ever-darkening world.

With the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus, he was able to share that spirit with all who came to him and sought and followed his ministry and, as we know following his death, resurrection and ascension, at Pentecost the Spirit descended upon all who sought it.  That is precisely where we find ourselves today.  The Wise Men came bearing gifts to the infant Jesus, Jesus himself, through his ministry, death and resurrection has bestowed the greatest gift of all, the Holy Spirit, free and unconditionally to all who seek it.  Actually, there is one condition, and that is that having received it you do not grieve it – that is do not renounce it or denigrate.

I believe the world is, today, hungrier for the Holy Spirit than at any other time.  Sometimes we get so caught up with our own little worlds that we forget that we all live in one greater world; but it is not all that great.  We are all living on a planet, a spaceship which is less than 8,000 miles in diameter in the vastness of a cold and hostile universe, billions and billions of light years across – if it has any boundaries.  It is the only home we have and really one which we can only ever have this side of the grave.  Jesus, we are told by John, came into the world to save the world not to condemn it.

A few years ago I watched the movie “Don’t Look Up” starring Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Rylance and Leo DiCaprio.  It is a little wacky but the essence of it is that in today’s modern age we spend a lot of time looking down at our devices and accepting what social media is saying, or not saying, and not enough time looking up and around us and discovering reality for ourselves. In the case of this film there is a large comet heading straight for Earth which will destroy the planet in six months’ time. The politicians and media people don’t seem to care, worrying more about mid-term elections and the love lives of celebrities.  In fact, social media and politicians start a campaign doubting the existence of the comet despite the scientists’ assurances.  Does that ring any bells? 

In fact since I watched that film in 2021, it seems that its relevance to what we saw going on in 2025 and continuing in 2026 is greater than ever!  People are listening and relying more and more on the “15 – minutes of social media experts”, rather than any true experts in their dedicated fields.  Jesus, we should remind ourselves is the Truth and the Light.

Sometimes, I think that those of us who know the true nature of God’s love and compassion for Humankind are crying in the wilderness just like John, but cry we must otherwise we have no chance of being heard at all if we totally give in or give up.

I am reminded of a notice displayed at Auschwitz I Concentration camp in Poland written by Pastor Martin Niemoller which reads

“First they came for the Communists

 And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist

 Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew

 Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

John the Baptist spoke out and encouraged those around him to repent – metanoia; to look at things afresh. To wash away the old and tainted and to step out clean, refreshed and into a new world with Jesus Christ as our king and saviour. As true Christians we should honour the pledges he made on our behalf – to move forward with the aid of the Holy Spirit, never grieving it but upholding it, promoting it and its powers and making disciples of others and having no fear for Jesus is with us, within us and around us.

God bless you all in your continued fellowship and ministry here in West Dean over the next twelve months and may you too have the courage to speak out and proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit here within us now.

Amen                                                                                           MFB/230/07012026

(An updated version of Sermon 168 and 211 delivered in 2022 and 2025 respectively).

SERMON 229 - THURSDAY 25 DECEMBER 2025 - CHRISTMAS DAY

Sermon at St. Mary’s Church, West Dean - Christmas Day Morning Communion – Sunday 25 December 2025 (Adapted from Sermon 209)

Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20 

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may the words which I speak be a blessing to all who hear them. Amen.

“Are you all prepared for today’s celebration? Turkey in the oven, potatoes and brussels pealed, presents opened already or under the tree waiting to be unwrapped? Prosecco in the fridge chilling?  Do you know what films you will be watching after the King’s Speech or games you will be playing?”

That is how I started my Christmas Day sermon last year and the year before that when I led the service at Farley and it is a great honour and privilege to be with you here at West Dean on this very special day. It really doesn’t seem a year since last Christmas Day – and how the world seems to have changed, and not for the better, over the last twelve months and I feel that, more than ever, there is a great need for the Christian message of Good News to be broadcast, not least within our own country.

Christmas is a time of great joy, expectancy and celebration. Yet, all too often, we lose ourselves in the preparations and miss the sacredness of the season. Why does it matter? Because it’s this holiday on which we honour the birth of our Saviour. It’s this time of year when people are open to the things of God. And it’s precisely this season when Christians most often lose sight of what’s available to them in Christ Jesus.

We are all people created in God’s image. We have access to his presence and his promises. So why all the strain and stress? Dare we ask ourselves what honestly matters most to us this Christmas?

Advent is a period of waiting and preparation – and now, today, is the day of on which all those preparations come to fruition and after today we enter that period of Epiphany which is a time available to us for some rest and reflection.

God invites us to push away the clutter, turn down the noise and offer him the sacred space in our lives so that the King of Glory may enter, take up residence and radically change us from the inside out. We can race through our holiday season more stressed than blessed or we can slow down, ponder the reality of Christ within us, and respond to his miraculous work.

At that first Christmas, God sent Jesus into the world as a Man, to be God himself incarnate to dwell among us and after His resurrection and ascension, Jesus went on to leave the Holy Spirit in each and every one of us willing to accept and acknowledge Him. To truly live within us.

In fact, it is good to remember that God sent Jesus into the world for all Human Kind not just the chosen. We should all work together as a Team not divided by greed, envy, conflict, poverty, race, creed, colour or any of the other many things which separate us.

The one great message or result of Christmas, the coming of Christ, is that it is meant to banish one word from our language, “them”. There should no longer be “them and us” anymore.  To illustrate this, I would just like to share the following with you to reflect upon over this next week:

The twentieth-century English mystic Caryll Houselander (1901–1954) describes how an ordinary underground train journey in London transformed into a powerful vision of Christ dwelling in all people: 

“I was in an underground train, a crowded train in which all sorts of people jostled together, sitting and strap-hanging—workers of every description going home at the end of the day. Quite suddenly I saw with my mind, but as vividly as a wonderful picture, Christ in them all. But I saw more than that; not only was Christ in every one of them, living in them, dying in them, rejoicing in them, sorrowing in them—but because He was in them, and because they were here, the whole world was here too … all those people who had lived in the past, and all those yet to come.  

Houselander’s vision of the intimate presence of Christ in each person continued as she walked along the city streets:  

I came out into the street and walked for a long time in the crowds. It was the same here, on every side, in every passer-by, everywhere—Christ…. 

I saw too the reverence that everyone must have for a sinner; instead of condoning [their] sin, which is in reality [their] utmost sorrow, one must comfort Christ who is suffering in [them]. And this reverence must be paid even to those sinners whose souls seem to be dead, because it is Christ, who is the life of the soul, who is dead in them; they are His tombs, and Christ in the tomb is potentially the risen Christ…. 

Christ is everywhere; in Him every kind of life has a meaning and has an influence on every other kind of life…. Realization of our oneness in Christ is the only cure for human loneliness. For me, too, it is the only ultimate meaning of life, the only thing that gives meaning and purpose to every life. 

After a few days the “vision” faded. People looked the same again, there was no longer the same shock of insight for me each time I was face to face with another human being. Christ was hidden again; indeed, through the years to come I would have to seek for Him, and usually I would find Him in others—and still more in myself—only through a deliberate and blind act of faith.”

 

This Christmas and New Year we see the world in chaos and the potential escalation of many local conflicts in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America into a major war. We daily read in our newspapers, hear on our radios and see on our screens, the inhumanity of Humanity. We hear and view the dreadful news coming from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, even now Australia and many other parts of the world and the triumph of brutal and tyrannical leaders.

The king of the universe is not a tyrannical leader. He’s the saviour of the world. Although we hear the Christmas story every year, again and again, it isn’t old news. It’s good news. It’s now news! Salvation isn’t just an addendum to the end of our life and Christmas isn’t just a quaint little story with shepherds and wise men coming to a stable in Bethlehem. When Jesus was born, God’s kingdom came to earth! so we ought to celebrate with joy. Jesus came, and he’s coming again. Let us worship the king of glory, with hymns, carols and prayers, but also, let us also worship him by the kindly and empathic way we speak and act towards others over this Christmas period.  For many, too, Christmas is a difficult time especially for those recently bereaved, and, this year, there seem to be more deletions from my Christmas card list – a time to reflect, perhaps, on our own mortality too.

When we set out to be a serious follower of Christ, we’ll often find a thousand excuses to tend to temporary things as though they’re the most important things in the world. But eternal rewards come from eternal priorities. We need to think higher, see deeper. Repeatedly, Jesus urged people to open their eyes and see the coming kingdom. See the story God is writing on the earth through us because of Jesus. Our current season is packed with eternal possibilities to do so.

We can and should change our focus, determine our pace, adjust our priorities and this could be our most life-giving Christmas yet. Whether we already walk intimately with Jesus or see him more like a distant relative, we can be assured, as illustrated in Caryll Houselander’s vision that he’s very near and that he came to redeem every aspect of who we are. That was the greatest gift ever given at Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ, God Incarnated, in that humble stable in the Holy Land.  Let there be no more “them and us” but just “us”.

Now that is really something to celebrate and reflect upon over these coming days.

Have a great day, enjoy being with family and friends over this holiday period, and yes do eat, drink and be merry in celebration but do use this time also to tell somebody about the true meaning of Christmas and the wonderful good news which is there for everyone and is the real reason for our celebrations.

A very Happy and Blessed Christmas to you all.

 

 

Susie Larson (who inspired this sermon through a daily devotional piece written by her) is a bestselling author, speaker and host of Susie Larson Live. She is the author of more than 20 books and devotionals, and her Daily Blessings reach over half a million people each week on social media. She and her husband, Kevin, have three children, a growing bunch of grandchildren and a pit bull named Memphis.

 

Amen                                                                                                 MFB/229/23122025

 

SERMON 228 - SUNDAY 14 DECEMBER 2025 - ADVENT 3

SERMON AT FARLEY ALL SAINTS’ CHURCH, MORNING WORSHIP

– SUNDAY 14 DECEMBER 2025 – ADVENT 3

Isaiah 35:1-10;  James 5:7-10;  Matthew 11:2-11 (incorporating parts of Sermon 178 and 179)

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and may my words be a blessing to all who listen to them.

Today we lit the third Advent candle known as the Candle of John the Baptist or Candle of Joy or sometimes Candle of Love, for in love we find joy, reminding us of the proclamation of John the Baptist that it wasn’t him who was the long-expected Messiah but the one who now appeared before him to be baptised by him in the Jordan.

But, we are ahead of ourselves for, like last week, we must return to the period of the Babylonian Exile and the words of that great prophet of that time, Isaiah, from whom we heard in our first reading this morning. Many of the prophesies, at that time, related specifically to the Jews’ return to the Holy Land and the rebuilding of the Temple.  However, the prophesies of Isaiah go well beyond just this more immediate restoration but look to a time when the Jewish people’s long-awaited Messiah will appear – a prophesy and proclamation well ahead of John the Baptist’s!

For many centuries after Isaiah, the Jewish people looked upon many candidates for their Messiah as is recorded in the Apocrypha – those books which plug the gap between Malachi in the Old Testament and Matthew’s Gospel in the New Testament – which are usually excluded from most copies of the bible.

So, for many Jews, the period of waiting had been very long indeed and we read in the Book of Malachi how the people, including the priests, were indolent or casual in their worship of God.  Their Faith had become stale because nothing seemed to be happening and their prayers did not seem to be answered. We read in the Book of Malachi how they offered defective goods as burnt sacrifices and kept the best for themselves.  Their worship was half-hearted and lacking in conviction.

Isaiah, though, tells the Jewish people that “the wilderness and dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly.”  This is a reference to those dry stagnant times described in Malachi when the Jewish people thought that they were in a time of great wilderness. Perhaps we feel a bit like that too as we see the world in turmoil and the difficulties facing not only our own country but those even more dangerous and destructive places like Sudan, Gaza, Ukraine, Venezuela, Tanzania, Nigeria – the list grows ever longer!

Isaiah gives encouragement to his readers or listeners by telling them that something great and wonderful will occur in the fullness of time and that God’s glory shall be revealed and “he will come and save you”.  What wonderful words of joy and encouragement after many years of captivity in Babylon; and so for us, we now await Jesus’s promised second coming but, like our grandchildren awaiting their Christmas presents, we need to be patient for the greatest Christmas present humankind can ever receive!

This is the message, then of both Isaiah and John the Baptist.  John went around preaching the baptism of repentance by which Jews could seek atonement for their sins.  The actual washing in the river, the baptism, was an outward sign to others that they had truly turned away from evil and washed away their sins. Hence John the Baptist called for people to repent.  You will recall, although it does not appear in today’s gospel reading, that the Messiah, Jesus, would baptise in the fire and spirit – i.e. not simply an outward symbolic gesture of water cleansing the physical body but that, inwardly, people would receive the fire of the Holy Spirit as we will see later at Pentecost, and be cleansed inside as well as outside.

Of course, we do read at the beginning of the gospel passage today that John, having heard of the ministry of Jesus from his prison cell, was still not entirely sure whether he was the true Messiah – God’s chosen.  Had his own ministry been in vain, he must have wondered. There had been so many pretenders in the Apocrypha, as I mentioned earlier, and the Jews seemed to have been waiting for a very long time – time for them to be overrun and occupied by stronger nations culminating with their absorption into the Roman Empire. They must have really been feeling that God had left them to flounder. Jesus’s response to those disciples of John was that they should report back all that he was doing – the deaf hearing, the blind seeing, the dead being raised, the poor hearing good news and so on. John had lived, but only just as we know from the story, to know of the coming of the True Messiah.

In our Second Reading, James in his letter, to the Jewish diaspora implores them to be patient in their waiting for the Lord to return.  He uses the example of the farmer waiting for his crop to grow, waiting for the rains to arrive.  Our house in Downton backs onto a field of various arable crops and it always amazes me how the crop develops from a muddy field into small shoots, then tall shoots and eventually the ears of corn or maize or whatever was planted and to be harvested.  Year in, year out this occurs, with me, in those early days of planting wondering what the seeds the farmer has just sown will turn out to be.

Advent is a time of waiting.  It is a time of expectation. It is a time of preparation and it can also be a time of healing.

A word used a lot by theologians is “liminal”.  It is a word I wasn’t all that familiar with until I started my training as a minister and later, even more so, as a spiritual director.  I knew of its devolved word “subliminal” better in the context of “subliminal messages” – those being messages which are conveyed to you, often in adverts, which are not in the forefront but hidden and conveyed very subtly. A classic one is the smell of bread upon entering the supermarket making you feel hungry and thereby probably putting more foodstuffs in your trolley than you intended!

“Liminal” means “on the edge” or “on the threshold”.  It has been described as the “no longer, but not yet”. It derives from the same root a lintel – that stone that you find above a door separating the outside from the inside – neither itself wholly inside nor wholly outside.  Likewise being in a liminal place means we are ourselves are in the “no longer and not yet” place. That is really where Advent is too. We are “no longer” in a place of despair not knowing if and when our Saviour is coming but in the not yet knowing how long it will be.  Of course, today we know that Jesus has been and we also know, those who believe that is, that Jesus rose from the dead and is alive today seated with God in Heaven and he has promised to return. Now we await his second coming and so we are today still in a liminal space with the exception that Jesus and thereby God can be manifested by the Holy Spirit – that same Spirit that John the Baptist promised the Messiah would baptise us in and which came down for all at Pentecost.  

How many of us long for that now?  We live with ever increasing tensions in a world with much hostility towards our fellow humans. We would do well to go back and read the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament and recall how Jesus told those in the synagogue that he had come to fulfil the laws and the prophesies not to tear them up. It is no coincidence that the passage Jesus read in the synagogue in Galilee was from Isaiah’s prophesy.

I cannot end this short homily better than by repeating the words of Paul at the end of last week’s reading and by recommending that whenever we feel lost or lonely in our Faith or want to tell others about it, these words may be a blessing and encouragement to us and those around us who need to hear the Good News –

“May the God of hope fill you with joy, love and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

So let us look upon our Third Candle today with the joy and love which it represents. The joy of the knowledge that Jesus remains with us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray:

Father God

 for whom we watch and wait,

you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son:

give us courage to speak the truth,

to hunger for justice,

and to suffer for the cause of right,

with Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Amen                                                                                                  MFB/11122025/228

 

 

SERMON 227 - SUNDAY 7 DECEMBER 2025 - SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

 Sermon at All Saints’ Church, Whiteparish – Advent 2 – Sunday 7 December 2025

Isaiah 11:1-10; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12

May I speak in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and may these words be yours Lord, and may you bless all who hear them. Amen.

Today we lit the second candle on our Advent Wreath –often called the Bethlehem Candle, which symbolizes peace or faith and is lit, as today, on the second Sunday of Advent. It is, often, typically a purple candle and represents preparing for the coming of the Messiah, reflecting on the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. The candle can represent either peace, as Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, or faith in preparation for Jesus’s arrival.  It is meant to be a reminder to work for peace and at the same time to have faith in God’s promises, reflecting on the journey to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, and the beginning of a New Covenant with God. In many churches the candle is purple in colour being the liturgical colour associated with Advent – symbolising royalty and penance.

Traditionally, also, it represents the character of John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus, who is described in the bible (in the first chapter of John’s Gospel) as being sent by God but was not the light (i.e. the Messiah) but came as a witness to testify to the light – that the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  So many sermons have been preached on the Second Sunday in Advent on the topic of John the Baptist, that I thought, this morning, it would be good to remind ourselves of the reason why God sent Jesus into the world in the first place.

As is usual, on the Second Sunday in Advent, our Gospel Reading this morning, narrates the now very familiar story of the ministry of Jesus’s cousin, John the Baptist who, we learn, went into all the region around the Jordan to proclaim a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and to proclaim the coming of Christ, the Messiah as foretold by the prophet Isaiah some hundreds of years previously – in fact in the First Reading we had this morning.

Back then, the world seemed to reject God, as we read in the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi.  I do recommend you read it as, in many ways, it seems to foretell how our world is today – lacking any enthusiasm for God our Creator and treating Faith as an irrelevance when we can take control of our own destiny.  Today’s world seems to be about image and control, and money and wealth of course; and, so it was back then.

I have now lived more than my three score years and ten and during that period I have seen enormous changes in the world and in this country in particular; probably none more so than attitudes towards the Church.

As many of you will know, I spend quite a bit of my time giving talks and leading stargazing sessions at sea wearing my other hat as an astronomer. A question I am very frequently asked is how I can reconcile my role as a scientist with that of a church minister? Similarly, with the news constantly seeming to concentrate on scandals and dissent in the Church, how I can continue to minister in the knowledge that religion is so flawed?

My response, first of all, is to say that churches are largely human institutions which often attract the wounded, the vulnerable and, like any human-made institution they will suffer from splits and dissent from time to time. Secondly, the wonders of God’s universe as I observe it from my viewpoint as an astronomer, fills me with the awe and wonder of God’s creation and the sheer awesomeness of it all.  Thus, my strength continues to lie in my Faith which is founded on the Gospel of the Good News of Jesus coming into the world, to lighten and brighten it.  To save the sinners, to comfort the poor and to bring God’s Kingdom to Earth.  In other words, to set aside the religiosity of the church and get back to basics – why Jesus came to Earth and what he said and did. 

For me, the light bulb moment occurred back in 2007 at Spring Harvest when a group of us went to that Christian Festival from Winterslow Church.  I was not entirely sure whether I would enjoy the experience as, having been brought up in a traditional Anglican liturgy, I was concerned that the event might be dominated by “wacky” Evangelical Christians all wanting to tell me how bad a Christian I was!  For me, therefore, I treated it as a cheapish holiday with my two children and if it all got a bit too much for us there was the North Somerset Steam Railway next door in Minehead which would certainly be “my thing”.

However, it was during the second night of the big service in the Big Top that the keynote speaker was Rev. Steve Chalke, the founder of Oasis and a Baptist minister in Waterloo, London. He reminded his congregation that our role as Christians was not being self-centred and ensuring our place in Heaven by being pious and religious but rather being in the community bringing Heaven down to Earth.  For me everything in the Gospel seemed to make sense and suddenly a light had been shown to me just as in Psalm 119:105 we read:

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path; it shows me the way wherein I should go, both night and day”.

That was the moment that I first felt called to ministry – although it did take another five years before I started training.

I love the gospels, because in them we see how “The Light” worked in everyday society. At that first attendance of Spring Harvest we all got “WWJD” plastic bracelets – WWJD standing for “What would Jesus Do” and although I have long since lost that bracelet I still regularly think about that slogan and it is a good mantra to have at times when your Christian Faith might be compromised.

You see, the people of the Old Testament had lost their way as we saw in Malachi. They needed “the Light” – they needed God to come down and talk to them in their own language and to be physically amongst them.

Imagine that you, a Human Being, had created a colony of ants and that the colony no longer acted in the way in which you had created them to be. It would be impossible to communicate with them directly and so you would have to send another ant, your special agent ant, to live and move amongst them to communicate with them and explain how they should behave – in their own language or communication system – that is how and why God Incarnate, in Jesus, came to be born in Bethlehem.

John the Baptist, appeared during the period of waiting for that Light of World to appear and he encouraged people to repent and be saved through baptism. Likewise, as we wait for Christmas, during this period of Advent reflections, let us think about how we might have contributed towards or ignored any darkening in our own lives by not reaching out for the lantern which is Jesus Christ.

We light candles on the Advent Wreath as a reminder of that light. In some churches we would also have had individual candles to remind us that as Christians it is our duty to carry that light of salvation – the way we should go – to all we meet in our daily lives.

Whenever we stray¸ when the world seems dark and cruel, when we feel we can no longer see God, remember he is all around us and by accepting Him and following Him we are in communication with God our Creator who made all things – from the tiniest of living creatures on Earth to the vastness of the Universe itself.  As John the Baptist told us, we need only repent of our sins to be cleansed. If we all followed that mantra then I am certain the world would be a better place.

Through the adherence of our Faith the dimness in our lives can be removed and replaced by the glorious light of Christ’s Kingdom on Earth.

Wishing you all a Happy Advent and Festive Season ahead.

  

Amen                                                                                                 MFB/227/04122025